I Need Somebody to Lean on: The Effect of Peer, Relative, and Supervisor Support on Emotions, Perceived Progress, and Persistence in Different Stages of Doctoral Advancement.

Social support has been depicted in the literature as an important determinant of doctoral completion process. However, few studies actually test its impact in sound quantitative design. In order to provide an incremental understanding of social support effect, the objective of the present study is twofold: (a) to assess the joint influence of three sources of social support (supervisor, academic peers and relatives) on doctoral students’ emotions, perceived progress and intention to persist and (b) to test the interactions between these three sources of support and the doctoral stage of advancement. To do so, a longitudinal three-wave study was carried out 446 doctoral students from two [country removed for peer review] universities. The hierarchical regressions showed that (1) only supervisor support significantly predicted doctoral students’ outcomes (2) the influence of social support on intention to persist was moderated by the stage of advancement in the doctoral journey. These results and their implications for further work on social support are discussed in light of existing literature on doctoral persistence